WATER POLO / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : UC Irvine Advances, Earns a Shot at No. 1

UC Irvine Coach Ted Newland has no illusions.

His fourth-seeded Anteaters withstood a fourth-quarter rally and defeated Pacific, 12-10, Friday in the first round of the NCAA water polo championships at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

His reward?

Prepare to play top-ranked and top-seeded Stanford at 6:30 tonight.

“Oh it’s always hard,” Newland said. “Of course it’s tough to play a game like this and then come back to play the top seed.

“If we had a better season, we would have an easier draw. That’s how it is.”

Irvine was the only team that had a difficult first day. The four top-seeded teams won, three by at least seven points.

Stanford beat Navy, 17-1; second-seeded California defeated Massachusetts, 17-4, and third-seeded USC defeated UC San Diego, 16-9.

Also tonight, Cal (20-8) will play USC (18-8) at 8.

USC has beaten Cal four out of five games this season. But USC might have to play without Jerry Wooden, a left-handed driver who was leading USC in scoring before breaking his right hand in practice two weeks ago.

“We don’t know if he will be able to go against a team like Cal,” USC Coach John Williams said. “We miss him. He’s a left-hander and he scored eight goals up at Cal earlier this year.”

In the consolation bracket, Navy (20-6) will play Pacific (17-9) at 2:30 p.m., and Massachusetts (20-5) will play UC San Diego (19-9) at 4 p.m.